Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Uberkill

Continuing with OCD-like laser-like precision into my investigation of Vox advertorials, it appears that the uncredited photo of Uber bike messengers pissing on a wall which accompanies Matt Yglesias's "story" on UberRUSH was supplied by Uber itself, as shown on this CNBC story which credits the photo.So why no credit? Some of Yglesias' stories have photo credits; others, like the one on Uber, don't. Here's an story where Yglesias whines at length about how Amtrak boarding procedures inconvenience him, illustrated with numerous credited photos, including credits for Yglesias himself and his dad. But he gives no hat tip to the "logistics" company whose product he's pimping.

The lesson is: If you're going to post content that reads like poorly-written ad copy, make it clear whether you meant to write a story or an ad.